Thursday, March 12, 2009

Miami chef Michelle Bernstein's Last Supper was a lengthy list of delicious foods, so creating a dinner out of them took some restraint. She listed (among other things) oysters, caviar, foie gras, poached lobster, lasagne, steak, asparagus, and about 6 desserts. For those of you who follow my blog, it'll be no surprise I chose lobster. But instead of serving it as a main course, I did it as a first course. For the main course, I did grilled steak with chimichurri and grilled asparagus. Simple but delicious.The lobster course came from my new favorite cookbook: Bistro Laurent Tourondel. It's Poached Lobster, Tomato Vinaigrette, Pesto, Tomato and Avocado salad. It was delicious. It began by creating a tomato vinaigrette. Cooked tomatoes were pureed and then passed through a sieve to leave nothing but the delicious flavor. A little sherry vinegar added a tart taste that was just enough. The pesto came together in the blender and then Mr. Lobster went into the pot. Jeff cleaned it for me and then all that remained was to assemble the salad. A mixture of tomatoes, avocado and a little redonion were tossed with some sherry vinegar and piled on the plates. I topped it with some arugula and then the chunks of lobster and then the pesto and tomato vinaigrette were drizzled around the whole thing. Delish!The chimichurri was also from Chef Tourondel. After perusing a number of recipes, I chose his because it included roasted red peppers as well as parsely, cilantro and a healthy dose of fresh garlic. A little crushed red pepper gave it some heat and it went nicley with the gilled flank steak.The salad was definitely one I'll make again. It'd be a beauftiful first course for a dinner party.